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Stage Electricity: Alternating Current

When playing Lee, one drapes himself over the refrigerator doors; the other practically dives in. One jabs away at the typewriter keys in a struggle to start writing; the other simply stares at the blank page. One wears 1940's dress shoes and an overgrown beard; the other, 1970's leather boots and tattoos.

As Austin, they spray the plants differently, sponge the counter differently, unravel differently.

Philip Seymour Hoffman and John C. Reilly take turns playing the lead roles in Sam Shepard's ''True West,'' which opened on Broadway to rave reviews on March 9, and that naturally invites comparisons. But critics seem to agree that neither casting configuration is better than the other.

Reviewing the play in The New York Times, Ben Brantley wrote: ''If you've followed Mr. Hoffman's and Mr. Reilly's work on film, you probably have your own ideas of who was meant for which part. Forget it. Whichever way you've sliced it, you're right.''

The audience seems to agree; people leap to their feet at the end of each performance, and the production has broken the record for weekly gross sales at Circle in the Square Theater, with a total of $243,063 for the week ending March 19. (The previous record holder was Eugene O'Neill's ''Hughie,'' which had a best-grossing week of $234,410 in August 1996.)

''We found moments together,'' said Mr. Hoffman, 32. ''But we created them by ourselves.''

Mr. Reilly, 34, added: ''It's not like each one of you are playing both parts. You are sharing the work of the play. We're this team, and we have this common goal to make this thing sail.''

Both actors described Lee, a gruff but searching outlaw, and his brother Austin, a placid but simmering screenwriter, as two sides of the same man, and said they saw each man as a side of themselves.

''The point of this exercise is to explore the fact that these characters can inhabit two different bodies and still be the same person,'' Mr. Hoffman said. ''The play is about one person. The play is about the battle of two parts of everybody.''

Nevertheless, one cannot help wondering to what degree Mr. Hoffman and Mr. Reilly learned from each other in developing their performances, imitated each other or consciously chose different methods of smashing the typewriter or drenching themselves with beer.

In interviews separately and together in the green room of Circle in the Square, both actors used the word ''osmosis'' in describing how they incorporated each other's work into their own performances.

''Things that were troubling you, you see the other guy take a different tack on it,'' said Mr. Reilly. ''It makes it seem possible: he found a way, so there's got to be a way.''

Because of the intense interdependence the play demands, both actors said, it was important to trust each other and to be generous about sharing ideas. ''You couldn't be precious about what was mine,'' Mr. Hoffman said. ''Even though we're going to interpret everything differently, we're both responsible for the same part.''

It helps that the two men were already friends, having worked together on Paul Thomas Anderson's films ''Magnolia,'' ''Boogie Nights'' and ''Hard Eight.'' Mr. Reilly brought Mr. Hoffman into the stage project. When Mr. Reilly met with the play's director, Matthew Warchus, last fall, he asked for suggestions about who might play the other brother. ''The first name out of my mouth was Phil,'' Mr. Reilly said. (Mr. Warchus said he also had Mr. Hoffman in mind.)

In interviewing actors for the play, the director said, he asked them to suggest possible partners because he felt a foundation of mutual respect was essential.

''It's a very territorial thing to create a role as an actor; it's quite private, and you're quite vulnerable when you're doing it,'' Mr. Warchus said by telephone from London. ''And if you are being asked to share that territory with another actor, it can be a real strain. If there is any kind of competitiveness, it can get very ugly.''

Neither Mr. Hoffman nor Mr. Reilly initially liked Mr. Warchus's idea that they alternate roles; they switch every third performance. But they said the director made a compelling argument along the lines of, as Mr. Warchus put it, exploring ''two opposing characters who mutate into versions of each other.''

Mr. Warchus also said that alternating roles was a literal way to celebrate the play's changes from night to night and to show that there are different ways of telling the same story.

Once on board, the actors said, they worried about how hard the work would be, whether it would be confusing, how they would memorize both sets of lines, which amounts to memorizing an entire play, since the brothers almost never leave the stage. (Robert LuPone and Celia Weston play the two supporting roles.)

''We had four and a half weeks to put up two shows,'' Mr. Hoffman said.

Mr. Warchus said there had been a point in rehearsals that he characterized as a crisis. ''The actors were finding it difficult to learn the lines,'' he recalled. ''They said: 'I can't do this. I have half of Lee in me and half of Austin. I don't know who I am.' ''

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But while the work has been grueling, the actors said, changing roles actually turned out to be a luxury. Both said it was a relief to move from one character to another, particularly since each part had different vocal and physical demands.

''I realized I was able to do much more extreme things than I could if I were playing one character,'' Mr. Reilly said. ''I'm willing to completely lose my mind as Austin or go completely bonkers as Lee, knowing I don't have to play that guy all week.''

Mr. Reilly added that switching roles was a welcome exercise in empathy and had enriched the acting experience.

''When you're doing a play, I think everybody starts to think about the other characters and wonders, 'What would it be like to walk in this person's shoes?' '' he said. ''It seemed natural to me because I knew both these guys were in me. Almost exactly what happened to Austin happened to me. And in terms of Lee, there but for the grace of God go I.''

One of six children in an Irish family, Mr. Reilly grew up in Chicago and started appearing in plays when he was 8. His father worked in the industrial linen business, and his mother looked after the children and worked in a cafeteria. He attended the Goodman School of Drama at DePaul University and quickly landed a bit part in Brian DePalma's movie ''Casualties of War.'' Mr. DePalma liked his performance so much, he made the part bigger.

Mr. Reilly, who lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Alison Dickey, a film producer, and their child, has been acting steadily ever since. (He recently finished filming ''A Perfect Storm.'') He said ''True West'' had meant the most to him so far.

''It does feel like my whole life's work was to get where I am right now, to be doing a play on Broadway by Sam Shepard,'' he said. ''Sam Shepard: to me that is America. Everything he says in his plays about family, how he manages his life and fame, he's a real hero to me. He and Tom Waits are probably it in terms of heroes to me.''

Similarly, Mr. Hoffman, even with all the success he has had lately in films like ''The Talented Mr. Ripley,'' put ''True West'' in another category. ''This means more,'' he said. ''The film stuff is great. I did O.K. with all of them. But in the end you want to be part of something that is the event itself, something that's bigger than you.

''If done well, it's hopefully one of the experiences people will remember from the theater.''

It was that kind of defining theatrical experience -- seeing ''All My Sons'' when he was in the seventh grade -- that made Mr. Hoffman want to become an actor. ''It blew me away,'' he said.

He grew up in Rochester, N.Y. His father, now retired and pursuing a degree in social work, worked for Xerox. His mother, a lawyer, would take him to the Geva Theater. ''I just loved it from the get-go,'' Mr. Hoffman said. ''I thought it was the most amazing thing in the world. How could people go through that in front of me?''

He went on to attend the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and began working off Off Broadway. As a Manhattan resident and co-artistic director of the Labyrinth Theater Company, an Off Broadway group, Mr. Hoffman said, he never planned to become part of Hollywood. ''I saw acting in films as something different, not about me,'' he said. ''It didn't seem as real to me.''

His first big break, at 24, was the movie ''Scent of a Woman.'' And although he has now done more films than plays, Mr. Hoffman said he had made a point of returning to theater once or twice a year. ''The give and take, the communal quality of people coming together,'' he said, ''you can't go to the 14-plex and have that experience.''

In preparing for ''True West,'' the two actors said, they drew on relationships with their own brothers. (Mr. Reilly has three, Mr. Hoffman one.)

''It didn't take a lot of research,'' Mr. Reilly said. ''The interchange between these two guys I've been through on both ends.''

Mr. Reilly also said the play resonated for him in terms of his relationship with his father, and that Mr. Warchus made a place for this kind of personal excavation. ''How much we talked in rehearsals about our families, it was really extraordinary,'' Mr. Reilly said. ''We were so open.''

The actors said they had also discussed the characters in depth and agreed that up to a certain age Lee and Austin were probably very much alike. They further determined that no matter how high the resentment rises between them during the play, there is always love there.